Independence Day

A brief registry of complaints from the Declaration of Independence

July 4, 1776 — Some representatives of the American colonies issued a Declaration of Independence from the King of Great Britain. In that declaration, they had some… concerns.

Among them — and posted here for absolutely no reason, no reason at all:

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

  • For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

  • For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;

  • For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury;

  • For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.

Happy Fourth.